Residential and GPS-Defined Activity Space Neighborhood Noise Complaints, Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure Among Low-Income Housing Residents in New York City

Abstract

Little is known about how neighborhood noise influences cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among low-income populations. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between neighborhood noise complaints and body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure (BP) among low-income housing residents in New York City (NYC), including utilizing global positioning system (GPS) data. Data came from the NYC Low-Income Housing, Neighborhoods and Health Study in 2014, including objectively measured BMI and BP data (N=102, Black=69%), and one week of GPS data. Noise reports from “NYC 311” were used to create a noise complaints density (unit: 1,000 reports/km2) around participants' home and GPS-defined activity space neighborhoods. In fully-adjusted models, we examined associations of noise complaints density with BMI (kg/m2), and systolic and diastolic BP (mmHg), controlling for individual- and neighborhood-level socio-demographics. We found inverse relationships between home noise density and BMI (B=-2.7 [kg/m2], p=0.009), and systolic BP (B=-5.3 mmHg, P=0.008) in the fully-adjusted models, and diastolic BP (B=-3.9 mmHg, P=0.013) in age-adjusted models. Using GPS-defined activity space neighborhoods, we observed inverse associations between noise density and systolic BP (B=-10.3 mmHg, p=0.019) in fully-adjusted models and diastolic BP (B=-7.5 mmHg, p=0.016) in age-adjusted model, but not with BMI. The inverse associations between neighborhood noise and CVD risk factors were unexpected. Further investigation is needed to determine if these results are affected by unobserved confounding (e.g., variations in walkability). Examining how noise could be related to CVD risk could inform effective neighborhood intervention programs for CVD risk reduction.

Obesity and the Built Environment: A Reappraisal

“…No such associations were observed using fast food outlet density captured in the 0.5‐mile street network buffer . However, two studies conducted in New York City produced counterintuitive results, with one finding that higher noise density in AS‐defined neighborhoods was associated with lower systolic and diastolic pressure and the other finding that home‐centric food environments were more predictive of BMI and blood pressure .…”

“…The authors found that the reporting of methods was quite poor for more than half of the studies included in the review and that the wide diversity in methods led to an array of conclusions . Fourth, some of the theoretical pathways through which features of the BE become internalized to influence health are not always readily apparent . Additionally, as indicated in Figure , most early studies focused on the relationship between BE and health, with few evaluating its effect on any energy balance behaviors.…”

“…Acknowledging that an individual’s home neighborhood cannot capture the full extent of health‐related BE exposure, researchers turned to more advanced GPS technologies to track movements in space and time . Cumulative mobility over a given time period is the basis for constructing AS areas .…”

“…The literature examining whether BE features captured in an individual’s AS are more predictive of health than home‐centric‐defined features is relatively nascent . In some cases, AS‐defined food and structural environment features have been shown to be more predictive of health behaviors than those captured in the home neighborhood.…”

“…Accordingly, such BE measurement tools have become increasingly more sophisticated using wearable GPS devices, often augmented with travel diaries, travel logs, Google street views, or other mobile technologies . These approaches allow the capture of near instantaneous measures of exposure to the BE not only around the home location but also at work, school, and along travel routes . Mobile technologies have become increasingly atomized, allowing researchers to capture the minutiae of daily activities in time and space, sometimes at time resolutions of 10 seconds or less.…”